Current undergraduate students

The New York Times reports that Funai Electric of Japan will cease production of its VHS VCR lines this August.  After that, there will be no more producers of this venerable technology.

VCRs were first produced in the mid-1950s and cost $50,000 each!  The first consumer versions were marketed in the 1960s but serious household use got underway in the mid-1970s with the so-called Betamax-VHS format war.  

Toronto's City Council recently approved a plan to construct a subway extension in Scarborough, in the eastern region of the city.  The decision riles many urban planners because it provides only one stop at a cost likely well in excess of $3 billion.

An alternative plan calling for construction of light rail transit (LRT) through the same section of the city would provide more stops, serve more people, and cost significantly less.  

Myriad Genetics is perhaps best known for its ultimately failed defence of its patents on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes associated with elevated risk of breast cancer.  

A new article describes another way in which the company has offended some cancer patients, namely by keeping details of their test results a proprietary secret.  

It may not surprise you to learn that the Pokémon Go phenomenon continues to grow.  As such, here are a few more items that may interest readers of this blog:

You cannot swing a virtual cat on the 'net without hitting a news item about the appearance of Pokémons everywhere.  The little Nintendo critters from the 1990s are back amongst us, visible only to those who have downloaded the Pokémon Go app on their smartphones.

The app allows users to view their surroundings but inserts pocket monsters where it sees fit.  Players can ambulate through their surroundings spotting and collecting them, or something like that.

Stories about the app abound.  Here are a few:

Adderall and Ritalin have been used for some time in academia by some students and faculty seeking to get ahead in their occupations.  Both drugs were developed to treat people with conditions such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder.

The Seattle City Light utility is preparing installation of the Denny Street substation.  Why is this news?  Because the new substation does not look like a substation.  Behold!

(Courtesy NBBJ Architects.)

Perhaps the earliest suggestion that consumer drones were about to take off in a big way was the "tacocopter", the little drone brings people tacos from above.  The idea exploded onto the Web in 2012 with the product launch.

The death of Johsua Brown in a collision between his Tesla and a big rig has led to some reflections on automation and trust.  However, it also raises issues about in what ways our world is, or should be, readable by machines.

The ins and outs of self-driving vehicles have been much in the news, as have concerns over software systems taking over jobs.